Dec. 7, 2012

The 'Left Coast Lifter' weighs in at a whopping 3,920 tons. The 400-foot-long barge — built by U.S. Barge in Portland, Oregon, has a custom-built shear-leg crane capable of lifting up to 1,873 tons with the extended boom of the shear leg crane measuring 328 feet long. Photo shows crane in action on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge project. Photo by Bill Hall, Caltrans

Written by

and Theresa Juva-Brown

Two companies with the top contender to build the new Tappan Zee Bridge own one of the continent’s largest floating cranes, a star piece of equipment state officials say will speed up construction and reduce labor expenses.

The colossal, custom-made machine — dubbed the Left Coast Lifter — was used by Fluor Enterprise and American Bridge Co. when they recently worked on the $6 billion San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge project.

Fluor and American Bridge are members of Tappan Zee Constructors, which the state’s advisory panel has recommended to design and build the Tappan Zee replacement for an estimated $3.9 billion.

The state has not identified the bidder, but The Journal News confirmed the information with a person with knowledge of the selection process.

The unique equipment may partially explain why Tappan Zee Constructors submitted a proposal with the lowest estimated cost and construction time among the three competing teams.

The 400-foot-long crane lifts large pieces of material very quickly, thanks to an arm that is 25 stories tall and can hold up to 3.7 million pounds at a time — equal to about 1,000 cars, according to Liftech, an engineering firm based in California.

Kenton Lee, a crane structural engineer with Liftech, which worked with American Bridge/Fluor to engineer the crane, said the Left Coast Lifter might be the biggest crane of its kind in North America.

“It’s ginormous,” Lee told The Journal News on Thursday.

American Bridge/Fluor used the crane in 2009 to lift up 1,500-ton deck panels and segments of the tower on the east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Lee said.

The crane is sitting idle in the Bay area, he said.

Fluor and American Bridge representatives did not respond to calls seeking comment Thursday. Granite Construction Northeast and Traylor Bros. are the other members of the Tappan Zee Constructors team.

Tappan Zee Constructors said it expects to complete the three-mile twin span in about five years and two months. The team’s cable-stayed bridge with distinct towers would cost about $3.9 billion, which includes $3.1 billion for construction and up to $800 million in management and financing costs.

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The two other bids — one from a joint venture involving Kiewit Infrastructure and Skanska USA and a second from a Bechtel Infrastructure and Tutor Perini partnership — put their total costs at roughly $4.8 billion for their cable-stayed designs. Those teams expect construction would take closer to six years.

The state Thruway Authority’s board of directors is expected to vote for one of the three designs Dec. 17. Board members can choose any option, although Thruway Executive Director Thomas Madison said the selection committee’s recommendation would significantly influence the board’s final decision.

The committee’s recommendation was unanimous and nobody abstained. The recommended option was determined to be the “best value” based on cost, design and construction, team experience and environmental compliance, a state official said.

David Aukland, who belongs to the 43-member selection committee, told The Journal News on Thursday that he was prohibited from commenting on the three bridge plans but praised the dedication of his colleagues on the panel, especially after Superstorm Sandy.

Aukland, a Tarrytown Planning Board member, was one of the 12 panel members to cast a vote.

“For the local communities, the construction will mean six long years of living with more or less disruption, and it will take close cooperation between the builder, the (Thruway) Authority and municipalities to minimize disturbance and maintain schedules,” he wrote in an email. “At the end, though, we can all look forward to the improved crossing that is long overdue.”